NDC Upper West Demands Presidential Action On Suspended Minister

Mar 9, 2018 | CitifmOnline

The National Democratic Congress [NDC] in the Upper West Region, wants President Nana Akufo-Addo to immediately take a decision on the status of the suspended Upper West Regional Minister, Alhaji Sulemana Alhassan.

According to the NDC, the region cannot be left without a substantive minister to steer its affairs.

President Akudo-Addo suspended Sulemana Alhassan on February 1 , 2018, for allegedly protecting a group of New Patriotic Party youth who had attacked the regional coordinator of the National Disaster Management Organization (NADMO).

He was suspended pending an investigation into his conduct.

In Sulemana Alhassan’s place, the government said the Deputy Upper West Regional Minister, Amidu Ishaq, was to act as Regional Minister.

But addressing the media, the Upper West Regional Communications Officer of the NDC, Isaah Kantagyere, said the President needs to be decisive on the matter.

According to him, “as the youngest and least developed region in Ghana, we cannot afford to be a suspended region in Ghana.”

He said the Presidency ought to attach some urgency to the investigation, just as it has done in the case of some government officials accused of wrongdoing.

“We urge the President to take a decision on the status of our Regional Minister as soon as possible… we are convinced that the speed with which you have cleared your appointees of wrongdoing, the case of our Regional Minister will not be different,” Mr. Kantagyere said.

Calls for the sackSome critics have said the President should have simply sacked Sulemana Alhassan.

NDC MP for Tamale Central, Inusah Fuseini, held that the minister’s appointment should have been revoked .

Inusah Fuseini claimed that despite the other tougher sanctions that could have been handed to the Minister including dismissal and possible arrest for obstructing justice, the President chose the “milder course of action” because intentions to reinstate the Minister.

Other minority MPs argued that it was also a constitutional breach for a Deputy Minister to act as substantive Minister, a claim the government did not respond to.